Photos – Page 176 – Vandalog

September 29, 2009

Fame Festival wrap-up

An overdue post. Fame Festival opened almost 2 weeks ago now and I haven’t properly covered it. There were a few of us who traveled to see the festival (some from as far away as LA), and if you couldn’t make it for the opening, I have to recommend it for a weekend getaway or something. Everybody had a great time. There was good food, good company and good art.

The gallery component of the festival was nice, but the highlight of Fame isn’t the temporary gallery exhibition but all of the street work. Artists have painted all over the small town of Grottaglie, Italy. Here are some of my pictures:

While it is great to wander around the town and see so much street art almost wherever you look, the highlight of Fame Festival is the monastery. There is an abandoned monastery where I am told the local teenagers usually go to bunk off school, and it has been transformed by artwork. It also happens to be where the Blu/David Ellis film Combo was filmed.

To enter this monastery, you have to go down a road out of town, walk past what I think was a small vineyard, find the wall that surrounds the monastery and follow it until you see some red drips of paint. Then you climb over the wall by standing on a shaky pile of rocks. The other side of the wall looks like a park that has been left to grow for a few decades. There are a few paths where you can see that plenty of people have walked, and you have to find the correct one to follow. Eventually, you realize that you’re on the roof on the monastery and you have to find your way inside. Once you’re finally inside though, it is immediately worth the trouble of finding your way there. I spent maybe 1.5 hours there and still didn’t see all of the artwork. Here are a few of the pieces I did find though:

The remains of Combo by David Ellis and Blu

More photos from Fame in my flickr set

September 27, 2009September 28, 2009

Yote’s animals

Yote is a relatively new street artist, with his flick stream only going back to June, but already he’s put out some work that other major street art blogs have been talking about. Figure it’s about time I gave Yote a mention.

He recently made a trip to Brooklyn and hit up some classic spots with his characteristic animals:

Yote Owl

Yote Coyote

And here’s one of Yote’s earlier pieces:

Yote Bunny

What do you think of the work? Personally, I think Yote is really promising because he does have the technical skills down, but Dennis McNett and Gaia are both using wood and lino blocks to print images of animals and those artists have components in their art that make their pieces more than portraits of animals.

September 26, 2009

Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes

Fame Festival isn’t the only place artists are taking over abandoned buildings. The leaders of Israel’s street art scene recently painted a building in Tel Aviv for their show Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes. Know Hope, Klone, Foma and Zero Cents all participated. Here are some pics that Know Hope sent me:

More after the jump… Continue reading “Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes”

September 26, 2009

JR’s Women project in Paris

JR‘s latest pieces are being wheatpasted right now in Paris. Here are a couple of the first images coming out of Women Are Heroes. Everything should be done by October 3rd.

See more on the project website.

September 23, 2009September 23, 2009

Banksy’s No Ball Games

Well this is now two new Banksy pieces on the street in one week (see: Ikea Punk) (and three in about a month) and the 3rd 4th (UPDATE: Thanks to Mick for sending this image of the piece at the Barely Legal show from 2006) iteration of his “No Ball Games” image.

First there was this piece up for sale at the Dreweatts Urban Art Auction in March. If I remember correctly the piece was for charity and direct from Banksy:

Ball Games Auction — Photo by s.butterfly

Then there was this piece at Banksy Versus The Bristol Museum. If you look carefully, in some photos of this painting, you can see that Banksy has sprayed over the image of a tv and replaced it with this new sign:

No Ball Games Bristol — Photo by Boxlace

And now with “No Ball Games” on the street (somewhere in London), it is looking great and truly where it belongs. Some pieces work well indoors, some work well outdoors. Banksy knows this. Yesterday’s post about his “Ikea Punk” is a good example of this point.

At Banksy Versus The Bristol Museum, there was a stencil piece of an anarchist being helped by his grandmother who was getting him dressed for a protest, and it was perfect for being inside. With “Ikea Punk”, that is an image (involving a similar character) that only works outside.

“No Ball Games” (IMHO) didn’t work as well indoors because for one thing that green background wasn’t enjoyable to look at, and for another thing that’s just the kind of joke that fits perfectly on a wall somewhere. Not to say this wouldn’t make a nice screen print, but like a sketch by Blu, what you’d really be buying is a nice piece of work and a memory of what the piece looks like outdoors.

Another reason I prefer this image outdoors instead of at Banksy Versus the Bristol Museum is that I’m a fool. When I saw that piece at the Bristol Museum and noticed that it was the same piece that was at Dreweatts but repainted slightly, I got the idea of a tv in my mind, and thought that the “No Ball Games” sign was a flat screen television. The mind plays tricks on us / I’m lazy. And I didn’t think the piece worked as well with a flat screen tv. Clearly though, after thinking about the piece for 2 seconds, you can see that a street sign is being thrown, not a flat screen tv, and the piece outdoors makes that even more clear.

Is this just the start of Banksy’s renewed work in London? Let’s hope so.

September 21, 2009September 22, 2009

Banksy’s Ikea Punk

One of my favorite songs by AFI is “I Wanna Get A Mohawk” (see video at the end of this post), my favorite stencil from Banksy versus The Bristol Museum was this piece of an “anarchist’s” grandma helping him get dressed for a protest, so I guess it’s not too surprising that Banksy’s latest piece is probably my favorite outdoor piece by him since New Orleans.

This piece is in Brighton Croydon, right near an Ikea store.

Maybe the reason I love this piece so much is because I’m definitely a lot like that faux-punk. I’ve grown up very privileged, I sprayed a crappy stencil at Cans Festival, I’ve gone through phases of extreme left-leaning political outrage, and now I collect street art and I’m taking a gap year to travel (and do other things). If you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?

And besides, for a stencil, that’s some real craftsmanship that few other artists even attempt.

Photos by Romanywg

That song by AFI:

September 18, 2009September 18, 2009

While I’m away…

Here’s something from Hera for you to think about:

heras_thought_small

I’ll be back from FAME Festival on Monday.

PS, I can’t wait to see what Herakut paint for The Thousands.

September 17, 2009

Where the wild things are

The film I am most looking forward to in 2009 is Where The Wild Things Are. I could go on and on about how excited I am to see it and how upset I am that I won’t be able to pay to do so (WHY MUST THE FILM BE RELEASED TWO MONTHS LATER IN THE UK THAN THE USA?), but let’s just say I want to see the movie.

Veng and Chris of Robots Will Kill have gotten me even more excited about the film and the book with their latest mural. The piece is at Espeis Outside and was curated by Brooklyn Street Art. Here’s a photo of the finished piece and a time lapse film. For more, check out Brooklyn Street Art.

September 16, 2009

Nuart: The reason to visit Stavanger

I don’t want to hype this up too much, but last weekend I had a really enjoyable time at Nuart in Stavanger and I can’t believe there aren’t more tourists flying out to see this festival. Here are a few pics.

This first pic is by me, the rest are by Ian Cox.

main gallery

And Logan Hicks made this cool time lapse animation of David Choe and DVS painting:

September 15, 2009

Princess Hijab

Princess Hijab has been getting around. After a mention on Wooster Collective a few days ago, she’s also done this piece.

Before:

princess_before

After:

princess_after

There is definitely something to be said for Princess Hijab’s distinct and provacative style. A critique of Islam, the fashion industry, or a bit of both?

Photos by Antoine Breant